Forum

Shields...
One of the gripes that we have seen a lot of is the fact that a shield doesn't really do much for a character until they have some experience under their belt, almost to the point of being useless. I have seen several alternatives thrown around and, while considering the authors' rationale behind how shields work, I thought of a middle ground (I doubt I am the only person who thought of this or something similar!);

Make a shield a single point of passive defense against attacks from the front. i.e. when attacking a shield bearer from the front you effectively lose 1 skill point. So, if your skill is 14, you need a 13 to hit the shield bearer. In BRP terms this is the equivalent of a 5% passive defense, and is also basically how shields worked in old school D&D by improving AC by 1. If you choose to parry with the shield you loose the passive defense for the rest of the round, reseting when new initiative cards are drawn.

Simple to implement and makes shields just a little more useful while not throwing the balance off. Thoughts?

I think the problem is more “theory” than play-based.

Shields have a use. Some characters will find them more useful than others, like musical instruments. Some won’t take them, that’s fine.

You can parry ranged attacks with a shield. You can attack with a shield using your highest str -based weaponskill. Shields dont Break easy. You could use it as a sledge on a snowy mountain. I think they Are far away from being useless.

As posted above. Shields are by far the best parrying weapons. Sword and board also has a lower STR requirement than a two handed weapon. Not everyone will roll a 16 at character creation. Or maybe they will but want to drop that into CON instead since you can raise a weapon skill but not an attribute.